


Ladies and Gentlemen, This is Your Captain Speaking

by raisedtokeepquiet, Sociallyawkwardwriter



Category: Eurovision Song Contest RPF, Festival di Sanremo RPF
Genre: Airplanes, Fluff and Crack, Inspired by Cabin Pressure, Japan, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pilots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2020-11-02 18:29:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20815391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raisedtokeepquiet/pseuds/raisedtokeepquiet, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sociallyawkwardwriter/pseuds/Sociallyawkwardwriter
Summary: Ermal has to fill in for a colleague at work, a bit scared but also excited for his first long-distance flight as first officer. Then he meets his captain, Fabrizio Mobrici and things do not go as planned...





	1. Chapter 1

Ermal was just a little out of breath as he walked up the stairs to the plane. He was late, but it was not actually his fault. Anyone would be late if they were called to work only after work was actually supposed to start.

He was welcomed onto the plane by his friend Andrea, and it was a sight that could at least lift his spirits a little bit, at least for a little bit. Because no matter how much he liked Andrea, and how grateful he was that he'd gotten this job at all through him, it didn't quite weigh up to giving up his days off, and it very much did not weigh up against his nerves of flying such a long flight for the first time.

"It's good you're here! We've done nothing but try to calm down the passengers who are complaining like crazy. As if Danilo would get ill on purpose, just to ruin their trip!"

Ermal let out a half-hearted chuckle at that, and Andrea knew him well enough to know what was bothering him.

"Hey, it will be fine, you'll see. It's just gonna be a lot of boring."

"'m still nervous," Ermal admitted softly, "and you know why."

Andrea only nodded. Ermal took one more deep breath before stepped over to the door of the cockpit.

"Oh, Ermal, he is-"

Ermal never got to know what Andrea was going to say, as he'd already opened the door, but he could make his own impression.

The pilot didn't look too happy. Of course he wouldn't be, with the hours long delay and a plane of annoyed passengers. He did look as handsome as always, possibly more so. He was also as taken as always, so Ermal tried to shake those thoughts from his mind. He was nervous enough already, he didn't need more distractions.

"Good afternoon, Captain Mobrici," he said, not quite sure how formal he should be. Generally, in the company they didn't mind all those formalities too much, but he hadn't actually flown with Mobrici before.

It was only after he put down his suitcase and took off his jacket that he realized that he still hadn’t received a reply, the captain too focused on the instruments in front of him. 

“Hello Captain Mobrici”, Ermal tried again, with more intent. He always had the impression that the captain was a man of few words, but after hearing about him from other crew members, he thought he had at least the decency to be polite. 

“Captain - “ 

“I’m waiting for Tower’s instructions, so please just sit down and keep it shut, now that you’re finally here.”

“Not my bloody fault”, Ermal grumbled, sliding into the seat of the first officer with a subtle head shake. He knew the other man was under a lot of pressure at the moment, he just hoped the Captain wouldn’t continue to take it out on Ermal.

He straightened his seat, trying to get himself into the right headspace, his fingers starting to automatically flit over the buttons and instruments, preparing the machine for take off. It was still hectic on the flight deck, Cristina, the head of the cabin crew dropping by from time to time to keep them updated on the current situation on board.

Ermal started to blend out everything surrounding him, only concentrating on his tasks, routine soon taking over.

“... Nagoya. Hey, did you even listen?”

Ermal gritted his teeth, annoyed at himself that he had spaced out so completely.

“Sorry, I was concentrating on the preparations.” 

“Well, I apologize for disturbing your concentration then. I just thought the briefing might be of your interest.”

Great. Way to make a good impression and they hadn’t even left the ground yet. Ermal knew there was no good excuse, he didn’t want to make one anyway. It was better to own up to his mistakes in his opinion. He stayed silent, waiting for Captain Mobrici to repeat the information, which he did so after a sigh. 

“Weather’s good, I will operate out, you back. Clear skies expected at Tokyo, our alternate is Nagoya. Any questions?”

“No, Captain Mobrici,” Ermal managed, hoping it didn’t sound as sarcastic out loud as it did in his head. It was no wonder the captain was in a bad mood, stuck in the plane for hours with almost two hundred passengers who would be more and more agitated as time went on and the plane didn’t move.

Cristina was back again.

“Fabri, please do a bing bong to say we are leaving soon? Even our charm can’t keep the people calm anymore!” 

She rushed out again, no doubt to help keep the passengers in their seats. Ermal stared at her retreating back, ‘Fabri’? Seemed his colleagues weren’t too hung up on formalities. Good to know, he guessed. 

Also, a ‘bing bong’? Better let the pilot deal with this. Ermal took back up the train of thoughts he had paused and tried to remember if there were any checks he had to do, any protocol he needed to follow. Were there big differences with long-distance flights compared to short ones?

_ *bing bong* _

“Once more, this is Captain Mobrici coming to you from the flightdeck. I am joined by my colleague First Officer Ermal Meta who will be my co-pilot today. We will be ready for take-off in the next few minutes. After take-off we will be back with information on our estimated arrival time in Tokyo. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and I hope you have a comfortable flight.” 

The Italian version he rattled off smoothly enough, and Ermal didn’t pay much attention to that. But when the time for the English version had come, he had completed his tasks, sure that he hadn’t forgotten anything important, waiting for the next orders, and he had nothing to do but listen to his captain.

And listen he did. It wasn’t the voice itself, of course not, Ermal was very much _ not _ focusing on how it was rather a nice voice to listen to. It was the accent. Of course, Mobrici spoke English, you didn’t get to be a pilot if you didn’t, so he did. But Ermal hadn’t expected it to sound quite like this.

This… Italian.

When Mobrici had finished and let go of the cabin address button, Ermal turned to him with a smirk.

“Giving the people the holiday feeling they’re looking for?”

It earned him a look with dark furrowed brows.

“What do you mean?”

“Tenk yoo forr yourr batience, and I ‘ope you ‘ave a comforrtable flight,” Ermal repeated, slightly exaggerated, a grin on his face.

It was an attempt, admittedly a poor one, to lighten the atmosphere a bit, to maybe put a smile on the captain’s face. It didn’t really have the desired effect.

Mobrici’s face turned even darker, before he moved around, showing Ermal quite literally the cold shoulder while he grabbed for their intercom and radioed Tower again for the latest update. Ermal frowned, mentally shrugging. Surely, the captain would be in a better mood again as soon as they were in the air and everything would start to calm down.

“So, Captain – “

The seat creaked as Captain Mobrici abruptly stood up, interrupting Ermal’s words.

“I’m gonna go and do the walk around.”

Ermal watched with his eyebrows raised as he left the flight deck, turning back to the controls after the door fell shut behind him, silently wondering how he was supposed to survive the next twelve hours if the captain’s mood didn’t improve.

“Hey.”

Surprised, Ermal looked over his shoulder, his face lightening up with a smile as he saw who it was.

“Andrea, hey. Everything going smoothly in the cabin now?”

“Yes, we got everyone to finally sit down again, it went better after they knew that we would finally be able to start.”

Ermal snorted, the nervousness that had never quite left him since he had entered the plane slowly ebbing down, the calm presence of his friend reassuring him.

“And?” Andrea said, brushing some invisible dirt from his uniform.

“How excited are you?”

Ermal frowned at the words.

“Excited?”

“Yeah, you always wanted to go to Japan, didn’t you?”

“Oh.”

A smile started to brighten Ermal’s face, weird how this fact hadn’t registered with him before.

“You’re right, I mean, I always imagined myself going on vacation there with Rinald but…”

“Well, treat it as a sort of pretaste… You know, I think it’s cherry blossom season right now, I’m sure – “

The opening of the cockpit door cut off his words, Cristina rushing inside, looking as flawless as ever, but Ermal could tell from the way her lips twitched that she was stressed.

“Is the cabin ready?” she asked, pointing at Andrea and Ermal felt a bit like a scolded schoolboy.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Okay, great, let’s get this show on the road then.”

She ushered Andrea out into the cabin before turning towards Ermal.

“Come on, first officer! No time to dawdle. You better start up the engines or else they’ll re-enact the French Revolution.”

With that, she left to follow Andrea, the door falling shut noisily behind her.

“You’re not my captain”, Ermal murmured, but still grabbed for the radio, Captain Mobrici should be back now every minute.

“Tower, this is India Romeo Oscar Mike Alpha, request engine start.”

There was a crackle over the line before he heard the familiar monotonous answer.

“Roger, India Romeo Oscar Mike Alpha, cleared to start.”

Ermal was just contemplating he might as well be as prepared to starting the engines as he could be, then when Mobrici came back, they were ready to taxi to the take off lane immediately. He was nervous about flying the plane for such a long journey, yes, but he could taxi it without issues, even though the plane was a bit bigger than what he was used to. Maybe Mobrici would be a bit nicer if Ermal showed him he was a capable pilot, only inexperienced. 

He heard the cockpit door open, that surely was the captain back on the flight deck, and Ermal's fingers inched towards the buttons and levers that would make the plane's engines start, which was a sound that would no doubt be a welcome one to everyone aboard. 

"What are you doing?!" 

Mobrici indeed was back, but he didn't sound too happy. Not that that was new. 

"Getting ready for take off, Captain," Ermal answered. 

"Turning on the engines before I was back from the walkaround? Have you flown before? Don't you know how dangerous that is? What if it wasn't all clear? What if I was right next to the engine?!" 

"Obviously I was going to wait! I wouldn't just turn them on, I was getting only getting ready so it would be quicker," Ermal shot back, defending himself, though he wasn't sure Mobrici was listening at all to him. 

"Well?" he added, as the captain sat down in his chair again, fastening his seat belt. 

"Well what?" 

"Was the walkaround all clear? Can I start the engines now?"

"No. _ I'll _start the engines and handle the take off. It seems you have a lot to learn still, and you're better off watching."

At that, Ermal huffed, and crossed his arms, resolving to do nothing, then, if his help wasn't welcome. Mobrici really didn't have to be this rude. If he stayed like this, it was going to be a long long flight. 

Having his skills as a pilot doubted like this, even before they had moved an inch, didn't help his nerves at all. It was a bit ridiculous, he knew, he didn't have to be this nervous, he had flown before, maybe not so far, but he knew what he was doing. It would be fine. Maybe not pleasant, given his colleague, but the job would be fine. 

He shook his head to clear it, and followed Mobrici's actions on the flight panel, watching as his hands carried out the familiar steps to get the plane in the air. Ermal stared at the sun on his hand as he flicked some more switches. He had to admit, Mobrici seemed a very good pilot, there might actually be something to learn here - though in people's skills he clearly had the upper hand. 

As they made their ascent, Ermal's thoughts turned to the destination ahead. Japan. Tokyo. He'd always wanted to go there, but the tickets were just so expensive. Funny that now he even was getting paid for the journey. He would definitely make the most of their layover, and make Rinald jealous with the pictures he would send him. It was like Andrea had said, a little taste of Japan, while he and his brother continued to save up for a proper holiday. 

There was so much he wanted to see, so many temples and shrines he wanted to visit, the Buddha statues… Ermal took a deep breath trying to calm down, surely it would be a bad idea to annoy Captain Mobrici even further, but he couldn’t help that he was getting excited now, the more he thought about it.

Clearly, with the limited time they had it was out of the question to go to Kyoto or even Hiroshima, but Tokyo also had its interesting spots. Ermal bit his lip, trying to concentrate on his work while his mind went wild. The famous Hachiko statue, he needed to see that, oh and surely, Akihabara would be worth a visit as well. Rinald would want to get pictures from there. 

That reminded Ermal, in all the chaos that had ensued when he was informed that he needed to fill in for Danilo, he even forget to phone his brother! He would need to do that from Haneda and he was really looking forward to that. He was going to spam his brother with pictures of everything he’d see, the attractions, the buildings, the food… oh wow, the food! How could Ermal forget the best thing?

Fresh sushi, probably far better than what he would get in Italy, Miso soup for breakfast and all the things he didn’t even try yet… 

An excited hum left his mouth before he could stop it and he could immediately see Captain Mobrici’s attention turning towards him, the other man glaring at him from under those pretty eyelashes. 

“Something the matter, Meta?”

“No, sorry Captain”, Ermal hurried to reply, embarrassed by his lack of self-control. “Everything’s fine, I was just thinking about… food.”

“Food?”

The captain stared at him with incredulity, making Ermal feel kind of sheepish, now that he had to talk about it aloud.

“Yes, I was… Japanese food, I like Japanese food, especially sushi, so I was just thinking, I’m really looking forward to trying the real thing for the first time, you know. I mean they even have types there that you probably won’t get in Europe, like that blowfish, for example, you know, the poisonous one – “

“Excuse me?” 

Ermal bit his lip, Mobrici’s angry voice sending shivers down his spine. 

“Are you seriously considering risking food poisoning when you have to fly a plane back to Europe? Can you even imagine – “

“It’s not food poisoning.” 

“What?”

Ermal gulped, wishing he would at one point develop the ability to shut up.

“Well, the fish already has the poison in its body when it’s alive, so I guess it’s technically not food poisoning?” 

Mobrici gritted his teeth, his nostrils flaring before he turned away again, focusing on the instruments. 

“I don’t particularly care for sushi”, he grumbled, his fingers twiddling with the buttons. “Just… don’t try the poisonous one, alright?”

Ermal wanted to roll his eyes but common sense won and so he simply forced a strained smile on his face.

“Okay, so I won’t try it during our layover.”

“I actually meant… oh, forget it.”

Ermal shot Fabrizio a confused look, but then, he hadn’t been making too much proper conversation anyway. Though it was a pity, that was the closest they had come to that, a conversation, so far. 

At least, in their discussion of Japanese cuisine, their ascent was as good as complete, and Ermal went through his mental list of all the checks they needed to do. He wasn’t sure if Mobrici wanted him to do anything, and the childish part of him wanted to just sit back and let Mobrici do it all by himself, like he wanted. 

But no, a flight like this was not the place for grudges - there were two hundred passenger and a crew with people he actually did like, and his job was to help get them safely up in the air and back down again. He liked his job, and he wanted to keep it, so he was just going to do it, whether his colleague wanted him to or not.

“Landing gear’s up, flaps are retracted and the aircon is on,” Ermal offered, as the captain slowly manoeuvred the plane into a horizontal path, as directed by air traffic control.

“Post take off checks complete,” Mobrici answered, not even too gruffly, so Ermal decided to take it as an invitation to actually be involved in the flying.

He hesitated for a moment, but then reached for the button that would turn the fasten-seatbelts sign off. He knew what he was doing, and he could show it. He wasn’t going to sit here waiting to be ordered around. At the same time that he reached the switch, he found that maybe he should have looked before blindly reaching out, because the captain had a similar idea as he had, and in place of the cool metal switch, he found Mobrici’s hand. 

Ermal snatched back his own, mumbling an apology and doing his best to evade the glare that was sent his way.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has now turned off the Fasten Seatbelt sign. For your continued safety, we do require you to keep your seatbelt fastened at all times while seated.”

Cristina’s voice sounded through the cockpit, and Ermal sighed. Here he was, they had just reached their cruising altitude, with hours ahead of them still, and he already was done with the pilot he was working with. It was going to be a long flight.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The flight continues and the hours start to drag on. Luckily the cabin crew has some ideas to make the time fly by.

Ermal's shoulders cracked as he moved, the sitting position he had crammed himself into a bit tense after the first hour of flying. But that might have also been because he hadn't relaxed since the moment he stepped onto the flight deck. He chanced a glance at the clock and barely held back the sigh of relief. The first hour had already passed and they would probably soon get their first meal. Hopefully everyone would calm down after that. And with everyone, he meant Captain Mobrici. 

His fingers nervously drummed against his arm rest, this was usually the point during a flight when he and his pilot would already prepare for the descend, Ermal mentally going through the pre-landing checks. Not this time though. This time there were still almost ten hours ahead of him before he even needed to consider the landing and, hopefully for everyone involved, not much to do until then. He huffed, leaning on the other side of the arm rest. Maybe Mobrici would agree to let George take over soon and they could maybe get some - 

"Oh my god, can you please stop that?"

Ermal stopped in his movements, just about to loosen his jacket, the harsh voice shooting through him like lightning. 

"Um, sorry, what?"

"You're moving. Non stop. Are you planning on doing this until Tokyo? It's really annoying."

Ermal bit his lip. He hadn't even noticed that it had been that bad. Great. So he just annoyed his captain now with his mere existence. This was going to be a fun flight.

"Of course, Sir. My apologies, Sir. I will try not to breathe until we're landing, Sir."

He could see from the corner of his eyes how Mobrici's hands tensed, his knuckles white against the dark plastic of the control wheel.

"Don't try to be - "

"Gentlemen."

The door of the flight deck had opened quietly with a click, Cristina standing in the entrance with two small tablets in her hands, a perfectly manicured eyebrow arched at them.

"We decided to slightly prepone the servings of the meals, because the passengers still seemed a bit restless." She stepped inside presenting them with each one tablet, the tone of her voice making it clear that she wasn’t only talking about the passengers.

"So here you go, your dinner."

"Thank you", Ermal mumbled, taking the offered tablet, simply glad for the interruption.

"What - " Mobrici started to ask, but swallowed his words under Cristina's glare. 

"It's pasta with chicken for the captain and curry udon with beef for our new first officer. Enjoy."

With that she left again for the cabin, the door falling shut louder than necessary behind her , making Ermal flinch just a little. He was rather glad he was just filling in, and this wasn’t his usual crew and captain. He didn’t think he would make it long, even with his love for flying.

Mobrici threw a last glance at the displays in front of them, and then switched on both the autopilot and autothrottle. Without saying anything else, he then took his tray and started eating. Ermal huffed, inaudible over the hum of the engines - luckily, he didn’t need another harsh speech directed at him - and then followed the captain’s example.

The food wasn’t too bad, all things considered, just a bit on the bland side. Ermal was hoping he would get much much nicer versions of this once they landed. 

Once they landed - it seemed so far away, it was so far away, and time was just creeping along. 

As soon as he had finished his plate, shoving the noodles into his mouth at high speed, Mobrici rang the bell for the cabin crew. Cristina reappeared on the flight deck after a few minutes.

“You can take my tray,” Mobrici only said, his eyes on the view of the clouds below them.

“Fabrizio.”

Ermal was rather glad he wasn’t being spoken to like that, though again, it didn’t add to nice working conditions.

“What?”

“Don’t you think you could wait a little with that, first until Meta has finished eating, and second until the passengers have gotten their meals too? We’re a little busy at the moment, and we’re not your butler.”

At that, the captain turned around to face Cristina, his eyes bright under low eyebrows.

“Then what am I supposed to do with it? I’m flying this plane, not twiddling my thumbs.”

“Put them anywhere, I don’t know, it’s a tray, not an elephant!”

With that, Cristina left again, once more the door falling shut behind her. Ermal just focused on his remaining food, it gave him something to do. He rather wondered now about the stories Andrea sometimes told him, about how fun his colleagues were.

When he finished the food, he put the tray behind his chair, and then settled back against the backrest, trying not to move too much in case he pissed off Mobrici more. The clouds were now occasionally breaking, providing some interest over the monotone white cover from before.

There really was nothing to do, he mused, as his eyes went over the displays for the umpteenth time. George was keeping the plane at the speed and height it should, and needed no human input for the moment. 

Ermal’s mind wandered off, to what he would say to Rinald in that phone call from Japan. He could just imagine the expression on his brother’s face when he would realize Ermal was actually in Japan. Maybe he should video call him, it would be so much more fun,  but then he should probably wait until they were actually in Tokyo. He could just imagine the face his brother would make if he called him right in the middle of Shibuya. 

The cabin door opening - again - pulled him out of his thoughts, his body tensing and only relaxing when he recognized Andrea's curly head, another steward crowding in behind him. Ermal had never worked with Alessandro before but his signature hair bun made him easily noticeable and they had exchanged a few words during breaks. 

"Hey, pilots!", Andrea greeted them with a grin, much more relaxed than before their take off. "How is everyone doing? Food was okay? No food poisoning?"

Ermal answered his smile, still a bit hesitant, but it wasn't as if Mobrici could complain about him now. Right? 

"Yeah, we're good", he lied, trying hard to seem confident. "The passengers all calmed down again?" 

"Yeah, it's a wonder what a little meal and lots of drinks can achieve. They're all quiet now, I think we can lower the lights soon after we gathered all the trays." 

"So, Fabri", Ale interrupted him, draping himself over Andrea. "What do you think? Perfect timing for the travelling lemon, isn't it?"

Mobrici tensed, his teeth clenching.

"I'd rather not."

Alessandro frowned at the reaction but then shrugged, turning towards Ermal.

"And you? You're up for it?"

Ermal looked at the younger man a little bit stupefied.

"Up for what?"

"Playing."

"Playing what?"

Ale blinked at him, as if he was the one confused, but then Andrea started giggling.

"Sorry, it's Ermal's first long distance flight, I don't think he's ever played the travelling lemon."

"Your first?"

Ermal nervously shot a look at the captain, who had now turned towards him, his eyebrows arching in surprise. 

"Yeah?"

He nervously waited for the other man to comment on his inexperience, cursing his luck to be stuck with such a green pilot, but nothing followed, the captain only nodding, almost as if to himself, before turning back to the instruments, carefully checking the numbers blinking in the cockpit.

"The travelling lemon is a game we play during long distance flights to pass the time", Alessandro continued, turning Ermal's attention back to him. "One has to hide a lemon in plain sight, and someone else has to find and retrieve it, then hides it again."

Ermal looked at the stewards speechlessly. 

"So, you're up?"

“I… I guess?” He still wasn’t quite sure how the game worked, but those words “to pass the time” sounded like the holy grail right now.

“Great! Ale will go first, then you can go and find it! It’ll be fun! And take some of that boredom away.”

Ale nodded, and then turned his head towards the captain, who was still staring ahead, rather than part of the conversation. 

“You sure you don’t wanna join, Fabri? We can try to beat that streak from that flight to Peru.”

“I’m sure.”

Ale shot a last confused look at the captain, but then turned, no doubt to find a lemon he could hide. Andrea caught Ermal’s gaze, looked at Mobrici briefly, and then shrugged, smiling encouragingly at Ermal. He then folded out the chair in the back and sat down, his head between the two pilot’s seats.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you go in all inexperienced. There’s different strategies to this, and I know the way Ale plays this. He usually tries to find something yellow, and hide the lemon in there. Bags or scarves, that sort of thing.”

Ermal nodded, still a bit confused, as Andrea went on talking about strategies and possibilities, getting distracted in anecdotes.

Soon enough, the cabin door opened again, and Ale was back.

“The lemon… is in play!” he said with a grin, before rushing off to see what Cristina wanted from him, as she’d been calling him.

“Your turn now,” Andrea said, and nudged Ermal. “Just go find it, be inconspicuous about it though, we don’t want any complaints.”

Ermal started to move his chair back and out, to make it easier to escape the clutches of the flight deck and all it’s buttons and knobs, but froze when in doing so his eyes found Mobrici. Right. He should really make sure his captain was okay with him stepping out for a bit, his opinion of him was low enough as it was.

“I… Um, can I go and find the lemon?” This sounded ridiculous, it really did. At least it seemed Fabrizio usually played too, so there couldn’t be too much harm in it, could there?

“If you have to.” 

Ermal continued his climb out of the chair. He had to. He would in fact go crazy if he had to sit here hour after hour with a silent and grumpy pilot next to him. This lemon game, whatever it was, offered him a chance out, and he would take it.

“I won’t be long.”

Andrea sent him thumbs up as he exited the flight deck, and Ermal wondered where he should start. Nothing really came to mind, so he just wandered down the aisle, keeping his eyes open for the lemon. 

Most people were asleep, or attempting to, while others watched movies, or worked on laptops. Some looked up when he walked by, so Ermal nodded awkwardly, hoping none of them would ask why he was in the cabin. “To find a lemon” would surely not increase the passengers’ confidence in him.

He tried to keep Andrea’s words in mind, all those tips he had mentioned, but the only one that had stuck was that Ale’s tactic was to hide the lemon in something yellow.

There was a lot of yellow, now that he paid attention to it. This woman was wearing a yellow dress, another was rummaging through a bag that could possibly be described as yellow - though not really lemon-yellow. A man had his cap on the tray table in front of him, that was quite lemony, but surely Ale wouldn’t put the lemon under a passenger’s belongings? There were books and scarves and sweaters, but no lemons. 

Should he look in the overhead compartments? But no, that was not plain sight, right? He should first just continue his walk through the cabin. He could turn to more desperate measures if he didn’t find it then. Though, he should hurry up a bit, he didn’t want to stay away too long, not with that mood Mobrici was in. But he also couldn’t return without the lemon.

Finally he made it to the back of the aircraft. There was a woman waiting for the toilets, and Ermal quickly nodded at her with a polite smile. Now he couldn’t search properly, though it was a slim chance the lemon would be here at all. There was not much to hide it on, the floor space was empty and all compartment doors shut tight. There only was the open stowaway cabinet for emergency vests, but of course - 

Wait. Those emergency vests, those were pretty yellow. Thank god the toilet had become free and Ermal was now alone in the space, because now he could quickly rummage through the vests before anyone saw him and wondered what on earth he was doing.

And yes! At the bottom of the cabinet he saw a shade of yellow that hurt his eyes less, and when he stuck his hand in, he retrieved the piece of fruit he had been looking for. A big smile started on his face, though he tried to dim it down a bit as he made his way back through the aisle. 

On the flight deck, he found Ale and Andrea, and he stepped in triumphantly, tossing the lemon from hand to hand.

“Found it!”

Andrea clapped him on his shoulder.

“Well done! Now you go and hide it, and I’ll go search this time.”

Ermal bit his lip, nervously glancing at the captain, who seemed to be completely ignoring him, focused on god knows what. 

"Go on", Andrea encouraged him, a bright smile on his face. "I promise I won't peek." 

He nodded absentmindedly before vanishing into the cabin, trying to look inconspicuous as he walked through the aisle - again - and looking at possible hiding spots - again. Thankfully more people were asleep by now, but a younger woman who was reclining in her seat and with headphones on, glanced up at him as he passed her row, turning her attention back to the movie she was watching even before Ermal went by her. 

He was already on his way back to the flight deck, the lemon still in the pocket of his jacket, teeth nervously gnawing at his lip, when he finally found the perfect spot in the first class area. He hadn't noticed it earlier, because the seat was placed in a way so that it was difficult to see if you were coming from the flight deck, only noticeable when you returned from the back. Perfect.

Ermal glanced at the other passengers but most of them seemed to be asleep, enjoying the additional comfort that had cost them a few hundred Euros extra. Or their companies. He straightened his jacket, his hand subtly diving into his pocket and placing the lemon onto the empty seat, right next to the yellow pillow with the blue emblem. 

With a victorious grin on his face, Ermal entered the flight deck again, letting Andrea know that he could start his search now. The door fell shut behind the younger man and with a sigh, Ermal let himself fall into his chair, a glance to the clock telling him that at least they managed to make another hour pass. No wonder everyone had already been asleep, it was actually pretty late and it must have been a long day for them. They were supposed to be so much further ahead that they were, what with them having to wait for Ermal. At least he had still been able to sleep in a little. He glanced toward his left.

It wasn't only the passengers that had to be exhausted. Captain Mobrici had been probably at the airport before anyone else, preparing the flight plan and the weather reports, all the work that was supposed to be done by two pilots now had to be done only by him. And all the time he had probably wondered where his co-pilot was. And then finally the bad news that he wouldn't be in today, the wait for Ermal, the pressure through the cabin crew and passengers…

He must have had an awful day at work today. 

Ermal noticed how the pilot was slumped into his seat, his forehead turned into a constant frown. He had to be so tired by now. Nervously, Ermal moved on his seat, immediately stopping when he remembered Mobrici's words from earlier, his hands gripping his arm rests tightly. What was he supposed to do? He probably should talk to the captain, offer him to take over for a bit so that he could rest up and be alert for the actual landing. That's what a good first officer would do. And, Ermal realised, it was also what he wanted to do. He wanted Mobrici to rely on him, he wanted to do something for the man. 

But he was afraid to. He really didn't want to experience the wrath of Captain Mobrici again. But what if the plane crashed because the co-pilot had been too chicken shit to offer the captain some much needed rest?

The suppressed yawn Ermal noticed the other man doing was the last straw. He cleared his throat, unsure how to start. He was so nervous, he could feel his heart beginning to speed up.

"Captain", he started carefully, trying to gauge the other man's reaction. "It's getting late. I can take over for you for a few hours. The weather seems calm at the moment, so there really is nothing to worry about. I'll be fine for now."

"What?" The captain blinked at him, clearly a bit disorientated, which only showed Ermal that he was definitely right, the pilot needed a break. Desperately. 

"Don't worry, even though I haven't really flown long distance before, I can still fly a plane. You can go up and have a nap."

Mobrici sighed, stroking with his hand over his face, the exhaustion drawing the lines on his handsome face even deeper.

"No."

Ermal tensed, disappointment spreading through his body. He couldn't really say that he was surprised, but he had still hoped that - 

"I don't like sleeping up there, it takes me too long to get here when something is going wrong, so I always just nap here, no matter who I'm flying with, so really it's nothing to do with you, it's just..." The captain took a slow breath, Ermal staring at him, speechlessly. This was not what he had expected from the cold-mannered man.

"So, yeah. Thank you. I'll take a nap then, if that's alright with you?"

It took Ermal one second too long to reply, his mind still trying to work through what was happening. Then he nodded wordlessly, watching as something that barely resembled a smile tugged at Mobrici's lips, before the older man leaned back into his seat, closing his eyes, his body relaxing. He looked so much younger now, like this, the grey in his beard barely visible in the subtle lightning and his face smoothed out, the half-darkness only enhancing his beautiful features. 

It was a bit weird for Ermal to watch the other man so freely, normally he was still trying to keep himself somehow in check, to not be too obvious, even though Marco from their ground crew had told him over and over again how obvious he, in fact, was.

Even though Ermal had never worked with Mobrici before, it wasn't like he hadn't noticed him since the first day he started working at this company, how could he not. The man was drop-dead gorgeous and in any other airline he would probably have a string of the female staff after him, trying their best to get his attention. His attention that was, of course, only reserved for his equally drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend.

And Ermal did well to remember that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The flight slowly progresses but maybe that's not the only thing...

Ermal kept his attention on the display, checking the numbers over and over again, on the dials, on the absence of any warnings. He listened to the chatter in his headset of the other pilots flying the route. The weather was stable, it seemed, and no one reported any turbulence for now. In fact, they were discussing the outcome of a football match. Ermal didn’t add to the conversation. First, he hadn’t actually seen the match, but second, he didn’t want to wake up Mobrici. There seemed to have been a change in his behaviour for the better already, and sleep could only improve it, right?

He switched the frequency of the radio to the one used by traffic control. Earlier, the captain had been listening to that, monitoring that, but he had taken off his headset to sleep. Ermal figured whatever ATC had to tell them would be more important than the summaries of football matches.

He kept an eye on the fuel temperatures and the weather and filled out the paperwork. It was a bit boring still, but at least he had enough to keep his hands busy. It was also helping his confidence - he was flying this plane, no matter what people might think of him, he was doing it, and it was going well. 

He was glad he had switched the frequencies because it was about ten minutes later that a voice sounded through the static of the radio, directed at them.

“India Romeo Oscar Mike Alpha, descend to 3000 feet, reduce speed to 210 knots.” 

Ermal scrambled to answer, almost but not quite stumbling over the plane’s abbreviation - the one he usually flew was so ingrained in his memory.

“Descending to 3000 feet, speed to 210 knots, India Romeo Oscar Mika Alpha.” 

He turned off George and autothrottle, and took control of the aircraft, slowly pushing the control wheel forward a little and the throttle a little back. He kept his eyes on the changing numbers on the screen, until he had reached the ones requested by air traffic control.

For a while, he kept the control manual, in case ATC would be back, but as there was no other call directed at their plane, Ermal put the autopilot back on so that he had his hands free to update all the paperwork with the changes in their flight.

He had almost finished that when the door to the galley clicked open, and Andrea stepped in the cockpit.

“Pilots!” he greeted them, as he leaned on the back of Ermal’s chair.

“Shh, he’s asleep!” Ermal cautioned, turning to face his friend.

“Sorry,” Andrea continued in a stage whisper. “Just came to tell you that I found and hid the lemon - masking it as a first-class passenger was smart by the way - and Ale should be looking for it now. We had a bit of a hassle with some passengers and lost some time, so I don’t think we’ll break any records this trip. Well, there’s always the flight home.” 

“I don’t know if I can join,” Ermal said, pointedly looking at the dashboard that was, frankly, all around him. “I’ve got a plane to fly.” 

Andrea nodded quickly. “Of course. We’ll skip your turn in that case, we need to reach some acceptable score at least!” 

With that, he turned and left the flight deck, leaving Ermal to his screens and dials and a sleeping captain.

The sleeping captain that was just turning a bit in his seat, the plastic leather rubbing against his head, making his hair stand up in all directions, a small groan leaving his lips. Which was absolutely not adorable, no, Ermal refused to even think that. He had a plane to fly and a lot of people relying on him that he did exactly that.

He turned his attention back to the instruments, blinking against the dim lightning in the flight deck. He had to suppress a yawn of his own, rubbing at his eyes. The silence was getting to him, the quiet crackling of the radio and the hum of the engine the only sounds audible, only accompanied by Captain Mobrici's steady breathing. 

Fabrizio.

He tried the name out in his mind and against his best intentions, his heart started to beat faster. He remembered the first time he had seen the other man, he had been working at his new company already for a few days before their schedules coincided so that they met each other in their company's lounge, the older man drinking a cup of coffee and talking with one of the handling staff, Roberto, the two of them greeting him when he entered, Mobrici's eyes seemed to quickly assess him before turning back towards his friend, continuing to talk as if Ermal didn't exist.

Whereas Ermal couldn't look away. The dark tattoos caressing the tanned skin, the strong hands, combined with those beautiful eyes. Mobrici was the perfect mix and he couldn't stop thinking about him ever since. Not even when he saw him getting picked up by a beautiful woman and two beautiful children, who were simply overjoyed to have their daddy back. It had been an incredibly cute sight, even Ermal could admit that.

A stirring from the seat next to him shocked him out of his thoughts, the captain slowly waking up and blinking a bit confusedly, which he - again - would definitely not describe as adorable.

"Sorry", Mobrici said, his voice a bit rough from sleep. "How long did I sleep?"

Ermal glanced towards the clock, trying to suppress an annoyed huff at how little time had passed.

"Not long enough. And there is really nothing to apologize for, you need to rest if you want to fly us all safely to Tokyo."

"Yeah", Mobrici mumbled, scratching his head, his gaze automatically drawn to the instruments. "Everything alright? Any abnormalities?"

Ermal shook his head.

"No, nothing. Weather is good, Juventus tied against Inter."

Mobrici stopped in his movements, staring at Ermal.

"What?"

Ermal shrugged, frowning at the instruments, not looking at the captain. He wouldn't admit to it, but he was kind of afraid what he would see on the other man's face.

"The other pilots kept talking about it."

Then a sound was filling the flight deck, Ermal's heart skipping a beat as he noticed that it was Captain Mobrici chuckling. It was a warm sound that made him feel a little bit light-headed. 

"Okay then", Mobrici said, still smiling, his hand in his hair, mussing up the chaotic mess only further. 

"Thank you."

Surprised, Ermal blinked at him, his mind unable to catch up for a second.

"For what?"

Mobrici licked over his lips, frowning.

"For taking over? For letting me sleep."

Ermal arched his eyebrow.

"That's kind of my job, isn't it?"

"Yeah, well. Still, thank you."

He looked at his captain, really looked at him, at the down-turned eyes, at the teeth biting into his lower lip, his fingers gripping the control wheel tightly. And he decided to take it as the peace offering it was.

"Don't worry about it." 

They smiled awkwardly at each other for a moment, before Mobrici cleared his throat.

"So I can take over now. You can go up, have a nap."

Ermal scrunched up his nose, staring into the vast darkness outside of the plane. 

"Um", he started, unsure how honest he could be with his captain, who was his superior after all. But then he decided it was better to be upfront. 

"I don't think I can. I don't sleep very well in planes or cars and stuff. And anyway, I'm not really tired. I'm just gonna try and push through until we land, I guess."

"You shouldn't."

Ermal scoffed.

"I know that I shouldn't but it's only a few hours and - "

"No", the captain interrupted him, Ermal tensing. Mobrici shook his head, clenching his teeth.

"Sorry, I didn't..." He sighed.

"I mean, when we arrive, it's gonna be lunch. And you're going to be exhausted from the long flight."

The captain turned his face away, making it impossible for Ermal to read his expression. 

"You don't want to spend your first day in Japan asleep, right?"

Ermal knew he shouldn’t. Ermal knew he should try to keep to a normal sleep schedule, not in the least to be able to properly fly back with the right amounts of sleep he was supposed to have, but also to make most of his short time in Japan. Mobrici was right, he  _ didn’t _ want to spend his first day in Japan asleep.

So sleeping on the plane it was. He knew himself well enough that if he stayed on the flight deck like the captain had done, he wouldn’t sleep at all, he would just keep checking the display and the radio, unable to let it go.

“I’ll go up then. Not too long, just for a bit, I’ll set an alarm. But call me if anything happens, okay?” 

“Sure,” the captain only nodded, and was that the faintest hint of a smile on his face?

Ermal nodded too and then slid his chair back and out. Right as he got up to the door and stretched his hand to the handle, it flew open, revealing Andrea.

“Ermal! Where are you going?”

Ermal stepped back a little but then recovered from the surprise.

“Up to sleep.” 

It earned him a strange look, Andrea was after some road trips together well aware how Ermal never slept in any sort of vehicle, before it was followed by a shrug.

“So you don’t want to take a turn finding the lemon? I just hid it.”

“Nope. Sleep. Move.” Ermal stepped past his friend and left the cockpit. He climbed up the ladder to reach the resting cabin. In the confined space he shrugged off his jacket and toed off his shoes before collapsing on one of the beds, drawing the curtain around it.

The curtain helped to muffle the sounds of the plane a bit, collapsing it into a soothing white noise in the distance. Of course, it wasn’t enough to lull him to sleep, but Ermal could close his eyes and lie back and hope sleep claimed him at least for a little while before his alarm called him back to his duty. His alarm, or the phone next to the bed.

It was actually nice to be out of the flight deck for a bit and to have some time alone. To think. To not be distracted. To focus on what was going on around him. 

His nerves had definitely lessened now. Mobrici had trusted him to fly the plane while he was asleep, that ought to count for something - not that he’d had much choice, but Ermal chose to ignore that. He was decidedly nicer than when Ermal first set foot on the plane, and the atmosphere in the flight deck was now one he would be able to survive.

His thoughts grew vaguer, less cohesive, straying more often than he would have liked to his captain, until they changed into dreamlike images, no, actually dreams, that were disturbed by his alarm blaring at him.

He had actually managed to catch some sleep.

Ermal fumbled around for his phone, snoozing once, while he tried to collect his thoughts. He had to go down, fly a plane. To Japan. 

Right.

He got up, used the bathroom and splashed a bit of water on his face to chase those last lingering traces of sleep away, and then climbed down the ladder back to the galley, stepping back onto the flight deck.

At least, that was the plan, if the flight deck wasn’t already quite full. Ale was sitting in Ermal’s seat, which was still swiveled back, and Andrea was perched once more on the folding chair against the wall.

“The land of many rabbits,” Andrea suddenly said.

“The land of many rabbits?,” Ermal repeated, “Where’s that supposed to be?” 

“Spain. We’re playing a game.”

“What’s happened to the lemon?” With a shake of his head, Ermal managed to get Ale out of his chair, so he could sit down himself. A quick glance at all the equipment showed that nothing much had changed since he left.

“Well, Cristina happened to see the lemon and was of the opinion we were taking too many chances. She didn’t want any complaints, not after -”

“So now we’re giving unusual descriptions of places,” Andrea interjected quickly before Ale could finish his sentence, and sending him a glare. Ermal resolved to keep this in mind to ask Andrea about later, it seemed to be something interesting.

“Middle Earth,” Mobrici said, to continue in the same breath with an update for Ermal. 

Ermal dared to shoot a hesitant smile towards the captain, his heart jumping in surprise when it was answered, a crackling on the radio diverting his attention for a moment.

“Behind Jason’s hut, then left”, the captain’s rough voice pulled him out of his thoughts and back into their game again. He couldn’t suppress the quiet chuckling and out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Mobrici looking adorably pleased with himself. At least until Andrea started speaking.

“Where’s that supposed to be?”

The captain turned around, looking at him incredulously, but it was Ermal who found his voice again first.

“You don’t know?”

“No?”

“Oh my god, I can’t believe this?”

Mobrici’s voice was barely more than a whisper and Ermal could feel his own shock mirrored in the man’s emotions. How could people grow up without knowing this?

“But you know it, right?” 

It took Ermal a second to realise that his new captain was talking to him, but then he nodded vigorously, still looking at Andrea and Ale, the latter simply shrugging which earned him another glare from the captain.

“It’s going down with this country”, Mobrici mumbled before turning back to his instruments, shaking his head.

The stewards cackled at his reaction, Ale grinning at the back of the captain’s chair with a certain fondness in his eyes. 

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting a little bit?”

But Captain Mobrici just continued to shake his head, his fingers flitting over the instruments.

“At least there is one other sensible person on this flight deck”, he grumbled and when Ermal’s heart jumped this time, it most certainly wasn’t in surprise and he was glad when Cristina interrupted them, telling Andrea and Ale in a friendly but firm voice that they should get their asses back to work.

Before the door could fall shut behind her, she turned around one last time.

“We’re going to be serving breakfast soon, we have either croissants with apricot jam and yogurt or scrambled eggs with tomatoes and toast. Fabri?”

“I’ll take the croissants, please.”

At the captain’s words, Ermal’s stomach tightened, almost revolting. Great. Of course. Eggs, of all things. Just the thought caused a shudder to run through his body. 

“Are you alright, Ermal?”

The soft voice surprised him, Cristina looking at him with concern in her eyes, so he forced a smile on his face. He didn’t want to come off as demanding, just when things seemed to finally have improved. 

“Yes, of course. Everything is alright.”

He noticed her exchanging a look with the captain, but she didn’t press any further. 

“I’ll be back with your breakfast then soon.” 

And with that, she vanished into the cabin, the flight deck falling into an awkward silence after the door fell shut behind her. Ermal cleared his throat, concentrating on not moving too much, his fingers biting into his leg that just seemed to have a mind on its own. 

Fortunately, the door opened again not long after, even though it wasn’t Cristina but Andrea who entered with their plates in hand. 

“Croissants for the captain”, he started with a smile, handing the tablet over.

“And for Ermal…” the smile vanished from his face, a frown now marring his forehead.

“Eggs? You’re sure about that?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine”, Ermal mumbled, his hands impatiently reaching out. 

“Right.”

Reluctantly, Andrea handed him the tray, still frowning.

“But don’t come complaining to me later.”

Then he left, leaving Ermal to stare dreadfully at the shining aluminum foil in front of him before a resigned sigh left his lips, his fingers starting to fiddle with the foil.

With a foil that was suddenly gone, a different plate set in front of him. 

“You don’t like eggs?”

Ermal swallowed, the captain’s gaze weighing heavy on his shoulders.

“Not really.” 

“Ermal.”

A single word, but it shot through his body like lightning. 

“You could have said something.”

The captain’s voice was much softer than Ermal had anticipated, his gaze still focused on the tray in front of him, unable to lookup.

“Sorry, Captain.” 

“You can call me Fabrizio.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and please leave some kudos or - even better - a comment behind if you liked it. That would be brilliant!


End file.
